Galveston and the Great Storm of 1900

In his report to Washington, Isaac Cline observed that a sea wall would have saved lives:

It appears that a seawall which would have broken the swells would have saved much of the loss of both life and property.

Galveston's residents learned from the hurricane of 1900. The town needed to protect itself against the onslaughts of future hurricanes. The city built a sea wall which protected it when a similar storm again threatened the people and their town. This time, the loss of life (about eight people in Galveston) was dramatically less.

Galveston's sea wall was an engineering miracle for its day. But there was more. When the sea wall was completed, the Army Corps of Engineers raised the whole city. Each home was placed on jacks or stilts. Wet sand was pumped underneath the home until the ground was level with the raised structure. Some houses were raised as much as 17 feet - the height of the sea wall.

Within twenty years, the scene of America's greatest national disaster had once again become a bustling seaport. But Galveston never regained its earlier prominence. Houston, its neighbor, became the major seaport while Galveston became a resort town. Never again did the island city exhibit the economic muscle she had displayed at the turn of the last century.